Sunday, February 23, 2014

And then there were 7

Yesterday I spent a large part of my afternoon with 7 of our students. We crashed the Richardson household and met for 2.5 hours about an upcoming missions trip to Volcan in the province of Chiriqui with Operation Mobilization.
Originally we imagined there would be at least 20 kids signed up for this trip. After the dust and excitement settled I realized that wasn't the case. God has a way of giving us what we ask for in a different package than we dreamed up in our heads. His packages are always better.

I wanna tell you about the package.

Good looking package right? ;-)
From left to right:

Avery- She is our scheduler/ logistics manager. She is kind of OCD so this position is perfect for her. Avery likes order and is seeking adventure. A lot of her adventure opportunities these days are coming in the form of missions. I love watching our God line up our students lives and giving them the desires of their hearts.

Pepper (up)- Pepper is a well mannered kid with a servant's heart. It doesn't get much better than that. He will get in where he fits in just to glorify God.

Trinity (down, wayy down)-The term "strong personality" comes to mind. ;-) Trin is bold and loves music. She will be in charge of leading us in worship and pumpin the kids up with song (hand motions included). She was made to do this. When she's huggy she'll come snuggle up next to me and its my fave.

Paulina- I know Paulina the least out of this group which immediately makes me excited to get to know her through this opportunity. I've already seen her eagerness to serve. When the opportunity for skits was presented to the group she had no hesitation. I love that!

Michael- I think I've mentioned Michael in like 3 posts already so I will spare you the boring details about how I wish my future sons turn out just like him. He's our accountant and group games guy.

Daniela- I have an email from Daniela where you can sense her excitement about this trip oozing out of every letter. I wrote about her in an earlier post so its cool to be able to see her take another step in her faith to go on this trip. Her dad is Chiricano so it'll will be fun for her to be in her father's old stomping grounds. She's doing crafts and every project she has ever turned in to me has had glitter so I think she's the right girl for the job.

Jonathan- The other day I figured out one of his strengths and I was so impressed. Jonathan will be anyone's biggest fan. If you do something awesome he's on the side lines cheering you on. Its fantastic. All that stuff in the Bible about 'encouraging one another' he's all over that. He also has the charisma of 1000 men so when he gets around a group of people to put on a show its like he was born to be there! He has booked our transportation arrangements. I'm super thankful for that.

Not included are the other two adults going:
Nathan Richardson- He and his wife let us use their house. So clutch because my house had no electricity yesterday. Nathan is all about empowering our students. This whole trip is on their shoulders. Without Nathan's belief in them I think they would be much less independent. He teaches them to be go-getters.

Tina Louderback- This is Trinity's mom. I love her willingness to come alongside us. She is giving up her time and resources to be apart of this trip. I'm thankful for a friend and for her wisdom and guidance. I also kind of envy her life (minus the dengue saga).

Pray for us. We are going out March 26-30. The kids are talking about the Armor of God. After Paul talks about the armor he says,"Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."
They ask that you pray these verses over us.